New Guy Question?

[bulletoothulk]

New to the site and found great info on building crankbaits . The only question's I have is 1, is it better to use wire or eye hooks in you baits and 2 , what's the best way to do either one ?

Thanks

[Vodkaman]

Eyes or wire are as good as each other. I prefer wire because I cannot source the eyes locally. If you use wire, make sure it is soft stainless steel, so that it forms easily and does not corrode.

 

Do a search on 'barrel twist', this is the strongest in my opinion.

 

Drill the hole just slightly larger than the twisted wire diameter and push the epoxy well into the hole, making sure that the hole sides are all wetted. Apply epoxy to the twisted eye too.

 

Dave

Edited April 19, 2013 by Vodkaman

[RayburnGuy]

I twist my own line ties and hook hangers, and like Dave, I use the barrel twist. It was much stronger in tests I've done. That's not saying the haywire twist isn't strong enough, but I like to err on the side of caution on my baits.

 

Ben

[quickdraw]

I use pre-manufactured screw eyes but mainly because I don't want to take the time to split my lures and do the work to set a wire. Interesting info here:

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/Outdoors/Subject/SubjectRead.aspx?sid=19&aid=175338&type=T

[bulletoothulk]

Thanks for the reply guys so through they are both the same strength ? And what size is the wire you guys use ?

Thanks

[Vodkaman]

I think mine is 0.031", unfortunately my vernier battery is dead so I cannot check for you.

 

It largely depends on what you are fishing for. If you are expecting trophy bass or musky, you might want to go a bit heavier. I have caught bawal upto 3Kg with this wire and it held up just fine.

 

See what others have to say. Also, this has been discussed before, so you might want to try a TU search, to gather as much information as possible before making a purchase.

 

Dave

[BobP]

It depends on the size of the bait but for typical (2-3" long) bass size baits, I use .041 soft temper stainless steel wire from McMaster-Carr.  Not that .031" won't work just fine - I use it on smaller baits - but I think .041" is the diameter you'll find on many of the traditional wire-thru balsa baits.

 

There's nothing wrong with using hard temper bright stainless steel wire but it's harder to work and I don't see any practical fishing advantage in it for bass baits.  The soft temper wire holds up just fine.  Besides workability, It has a couple of advantages:  on baits where the line tie is in the nose of the bait, soft wire allows you to tune the bait with less chance of breaking the finish and allowing water to infiltrate the body.  Also, if you are doing thru-wire balsa, you'll find the soft wire much easier to shape and it will conform easier when you join the bait halves.  If you get a hard temper wire frame out of alignment, it can be the devil to get into the bait.  I've also use an intermediate temper wire, Malin Hard Wire leader material in .029" diameter for screw eyes occasionally.  It's soft enough to twist and has a test strength of 180 lbs, plus you can get in a coffee color that sometimes looks good on some baits.